Africa

International court orders reparations for Congo attack

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Presiding Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut opens the court session prior to delivering the order for reparations to victims in the Germain Katanga case at the International Criminal court in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday March 24, 2017. (Toussaint Kluiters POOL via AP) (The Associated Press)

Presiding Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, center, Judge Olga Herrera-Carbuccia, left, and Judge Peter Kovacs, right, are about to deliver the court's order for reparations to victims in the Germain Katanga case at the International Criminal court in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday March 24, 2017. (Toussaint Kluiters POOL via AP) (The Associated Press)

Presiding Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, right, Judge Olga Herrera-Carbuccia, left, and Judge Peter Kovacs, second right, enter the court room prior to delivering the court's order for reparations to victims in the Germain Katanga case at the International Criminal court in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday March 24, 2017. (Toussaint Kluiters POOL via AP) (The Associated Press)

The International Criminal Court has awarded symbolic reparations of $250 each to nearly 300 people who lost relatives, property or livestock or suffered psychological harm in a deadly attack on a Congolese village in 2003.

Friday's award followed the conviction in 2014 of Germaine Katanga for crimes committed in the attack on Bogoro in the Ituri region of Congo.

The court estimated the "extent of the physical, material and psychological harm suffered by the victims" amounted to more than $3.7 million and said Katanga was responsible for $1 million. But it added that he is considered "indigent" and unlikely to be able to pay.

Judges also awarded collective reparations in the form of projects covering "housing, support for income-generating activities, education and psychological support" for victims.